Record construction of 534 kilometres of national highways in one week

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) on Sunday said that a record 534 km of national highways was constructed in one week, beginning January 8.

In a statement, the MoRTH said that it has "created a record by constructing 534 km of National Highways (NHs) in the last week commencing 8 January".

"The Ministry has constructed 8,169 km of NHs from April 2020 to 15 January 2021 in the current financial year 2020-21, i.e. with a speed of about 28.16 km per day. During the same period in the last fiscal, 7,573 km roads were constructed, with a speed of 26.11 km per day," it said.

The Ministry is hopeful that with such pace it should be able to cross the construction target of 11,000 km by 31 March.

The Ministry also awarded NH projects of 7,597 km during this period (April 2020 to 15 January 2021). In 2019-20, projects of 3,474 km were awarded during the same period. Thus, the pace of award has also more than doubled this fiscal. In total, projects of 8,948 km of roads were awarded in 2019-20 while 10,237 km of roads were constructed.

"The achievement assumes significance given the fact that the first two months of the current fiscal were lost due to nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic," it said.

The Ministry said that it has taken several initiatives to increase the pace of construction. The pace of construction is expected to increase further in the remaining months of the current financial year, which are conducive for construction activities, Ministry stated.

( With inputs from ANI )